Chicago HOA Management – Edgewater

Your homeowners association will flourish with a great HOA management company. It will also struggle with a weak one. Without a great management company, you will need to be able to handle everything that it requires by yourself, as well as being informed of every situation and issue that may arise.

Finding the best HOA management company in the Chicago neighborhood of Edgewater is not easy, and many times, hard to afford. Finding one that fits your HOA’s lifestyle and required needs of its members, is of utmost importance. You will need to be certain you are paying the right price for your investment, as well as avoiding unnecessary costs. Once you are able to do these things, you will need to be certain that the Edgewater HOA management contract details the promises and services in which they will be providing to you and those in your building. These important details that are outlined during the bidding process with protect your association from any issues or surprises that may arise.

Overall, it is essential that you understand how to handle an HOA management company in Chicago that is not providing the services in which they outlined, and how to handle one that is not following up on its responsibilities.

If you have decided to join as a member of your board of directors, you need to know how to reduce your HOA’s legal exposure. You need to understand the rules. You need to understand your personal risks as a member or director. This is mandatory, especially if your board has decided to manage your HOA without the guidance of a management company in the Chicago neighborhood of Edgewater.

In this special report (signup in the sidebar of this page), Lou Lutz offers helpful tips and guidance on each of these issues. Learn simple strategies to follow during board meetings for maximum effectiveness, the questions you should be asking, tactics to avoid wasting time and improving overall competence and resolutions, as well as how to deal with an incompetent HOA.

Although State laws and governing documents may vary, this special report will provide a solid base for your Board of Directors to guide you through your relationship with your management company, or help you work without one effectively.

Edgewater HOA Management

A Brief History of Chicago’s Edgewater Neighborhood

Edgewater is a lakefront community area on the North Side of the city of Chicago, Illinois seven miles north of the Loop. As one of Chicago’s 77 official community areas, Edgewater is bounded by Foster Avenue on the south, Devon Avenue on the north, Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and Lake Michigan on the east.[3] Edgewater contains several beaches that residents enjoy in the late spring, summer, and early autumn. Chicago’s largest park, Lincoln Park, stretches south from Edgewater for seven miles along the waterfront, almost to downtown. Historically, Edgewater was the northeastern corner of Lake View Township, an independent suburb which was annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889. Today, the Uptown community is to Edgewater’s south, Lincoln Square to its west, West Ridge to its northwest and Rogers Park to its north.

Edgewater was first developed around the 1880s as a summer home for Chicago’s elite. Today, it provides the northern terminus of both Lincoln Park and Lake Shore Drive. With the exception of pockets acknowledged as historic districts (like the Bryn Mawr Historic District), east-Edgewater (Edgewater Beach) boasts a skyline of high-rise apartment buildings, condominium complexes, and mid-rise homes. To the west, Edgewater is characterized by commercial businesses; single-family homes; and two-, three-, or four-story flats, including the historic neighborhood of Andersonville.

Developers began buying up orchards and truck farms, and cutting down the dense woods in the Lake View Township (of which Edgewater was a part) in the 1880s to make way for future development. From 1870 to 1887 the population of the township, then north of the City of Chicago, grew from 2,000 citizens to 45,000. As a result, there was growing need of more public-service access, and Lake View was annexed to Chicago in 1889 as a way of meeting those demands.

In 1885, the northeastern section of Lake View was given the name Edgewater by prominent developer John Lewis Cochran. He built the first residential subdivision in the area. Many of his homes can still be found in the Lakewood Balmoral Historic District. After a few years, Edgewater was celebrated as a wonder as it became “the only electric lighted suburb adjacent to Chicago”.

By the early 1900s, Edgewater was regarded as one of Chicago’s most prestigious communities. Mansions dominated the lakefront, while large single-family homes spread inland to the former farming village of Andersonville (then also called Somerdale). A prominent symbol of Edgewater’s affluence and desirable location on the lake was the Edgewater Beach Hotel, which opened in 1916 at 5349 N. Sheridan. The famed “sunrise” yellow hotel was razed in 1968, though the remaining “sunset” pink Edgewater Beach Apartments building is still a landmark at the north tip of Lake Shore Drive. The Edgewater building boom peaked in 1926 and property values reached their height in 1928. Around 1900, the burgeoning affluent population grew so much that developers expanded Edgewater and renamed a portion of the neighborhood community Uptown (which still exists today). Uptown quickly became the commercial hub of the area, with storied nightlife, entertainment and tall commercial buildings. Thus, in the late 1920s, when Community Areas were first designated, the Edgewater area was included as a section of Uptown. Info provided through Wikipedia.

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About Us

Lou Lutz CMCA, AMS, PCAM & CPM has been helping condominium board members and other volunteers govern their associations successfully for over 40 years. He has received several awards and is a recent recipient of the Barbara D Wick Special Service Award from the Community Association Institute (CAI) for his role in establishing a curriculum for educating and training board members. A recognized expert of community management he is a frequent speaker and has written several articles on the subject of community associations. He is a certified national instructor for CAI. In addition to being a licensed Community Association Manager he is a licensed real estate broker and a licensed insurance producer. He is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of First Community Management.